Metroid: Endurance
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: Defeating the X was a harrowing experience and facing sceptical Federation officials didn't exactly give Samus time to recover. Still, she'd always endured in the past. And she would always continue to do so.


**Endurance**

In the end, the nightmare always came back.

No, not nightmare. Samus Aran knew what nightmares were like-melodramatic at best, the manifestation of the dark side of imagination at worst. No, this was pure memory. And while many of her early nightmares had stemmed from memories, usually involving a certain colony designated as K-2L, she'd always been able to take solace in that the account her mind played was never completely accurate, not to mention the training the chozo put her through took her mind off the Space Pirate attack fairly quickly. But right now, residing on Daiban as the powers that be decided her fate, left with nothing to do but wait and reflect on her actions on BSL, all she had was memories.

_You're not alone though, _the bounty hunter reminded herself, walking out to the balcony to gaze upon the elegant spires of the Federation's capital as if to remind herself of this. _The ecetoons, the dactons, Adam…they share the same memories._

Well, some of them at least. Residing on a ship and hiding in living quarters didn't exactly stack up with watching everything from humans to biological weapons be infected and twisted by a parasite from something even worse than nightmare. Even in her fusion suit, she couldn't escape the smell…the corruption of the artificial SR-388 environment, the breath of spawned predators, blood…The SA-X she'd destroyed had been just as busy and even after multiple attempts, her reclaimed power suit still smelt of…of…

_Death?_

Maybe. But after experiencing and dealing death for so long, Samus wasn't so sure. Death came in many forms. And a fully enclosed power suit aside, it never smelt anything like what BSL had become.

Which reeked in more ways than one. Because smell was a potent sense that brought back memory…and that was the _last _thing the bounty hunter wanted.

Leaning on the railing and inhaling the smells of Daiban's cityscape, Samus could take solace that at least her sense of touch was under control, shaking hands aside. She didn't know why the X bothered her so much, why after fighting and killing everything from Space Pirates to metroids an itty bitty parasite was scaring the life out of her. Certainly none of the shrinks knew, though as most were involved in determining whether her actions involved "questionable judgement," they probably weren't looking for an explanation, weren't looking at her in such a way that she hadn't received since after human Adam died. Much better than staring into the face of death, of creatures spawned simply for the sake of infection and proliferation, but not exactly comforting either.

_But you don't need them. You know the answer. You just won't admit it._

Sighing as she rubbed both her forehead and eyes, yet failing to keep her headache and lack of sleep at bay, Samus couldn't help but reflect on the irony-Mother Brain had twisted the truth about her origins which had brought her to the knees, yet she was no better at facing a genuine truth either. The truth being that after all she'd done, after all the Space Pirates she'd sent to an early grave, after nearly wiping out an entire species and doing so again on BSL for that matter, she could always rationalize it. Even Space Pirates chose their actions to an extent, worker bee nature aside and as horrific as the metroids were, they'd been created that way, for a purpose. But the X had come into existence naturally. Somehow, natural evolution had resulted in a heartless, soulless race of parasites. The universe, not its inhabitants had created those monsters. And while Samus firmly believed that people could change, refused to go back to what Mother Brain had called "ground zero," what was to stop the cosmos. The X had come into creation once. What would stop similar evolution from occurring again?

_But what if you could have stopped it? _The bounty hunter wondered, unable to stop herself from going down the self-destructive path of "what if?" _What if you let the Federation take the station? What if they could have succeeded and brought the X under control? What if the X provided a solution for a similar threat that may be lurking out there?_

Everything on BSL had told Samus that notions of control were wasted on such parasites, that both the station and SR-388 had to be destroyed if galactic civilization was to endure. But now, with the benefit of hindsight and vindictive officials who wanted to pin the entire disaster on her…well, it was disheartening. Especially since in a few hours time those same officials would be yakking on about everything from cost to treason in the assembly hall's courtroom. And for that reason, even as the memories threatened to return, Samus decided to catch up on some lost sleep, secure in the knowledge of one thing.

She'd always been able to endure in the past.

And she always would.


End file.
